Content by F T.Bear
Good morning! Rise and shine!
Today in history is a place for you early risers to exercise your brains as you wait for the day to begin. Please, by all means, bring your own bits of history to the comments section and add your memories of what YOU did on this day however many years ago.
The beauty of an early morning historical post is that the date can mean the event happened today “our time” or today “other side of the world” time.
From the life and death of Plato through to the latest most recent history as it happens, we intend on bringing you stimulating and educational historical knowledge.
July 6
1923: The Auckland- Wellington express ploughs into a huge slip on the tracks near Ongarue, north of Taumarunui. Seventeen people are killed and 28 are injured. It was the first accident to claim more than four lives since the beginning of NZ rail history, 60 years earlier. It remains NZs third worst rail disaster.
1944: In Hartford Connecticut, a fire breaks out under the big top of Ringling Bros. and Barnum Bailey Circus, killing 167 people and injuring 682. The rapid spread of the fire was due to the waterproofing of the canvas, a mixture of paraffin thinned with gasoline. Robert D. Sagee a self-confessed arsonist from Ohio, confessed, in 1950, to starting the fire.
1535: Sir Thomas More is beheaded in England for refusing to swear allegiance to King Henry VIII as head of the Church.
1835: John Marshall, the third chief justice of the Supreme Court dies aged 79. Two days later while tolling in his honour, in Philadelphia, the Liberty Bell cracks.
